Euro 2020: How the ‘Rushie Challenge’ inspired Harry Wilson to become a Welsh wonder

If Wales’ Harry Wilson finds himself staring down the goalkeeper and in a position to score a legendary goal for his country tonight, it will be the ‘Rushie Challenge’ that has prepared him to make the best of it.

Ian Rush’s objective when he coached Wilson at Liverpool‘s Academy and in the under-15s Wales set-up was to make him two-footed. He’d ask him to stand with his back to goal, exchanging passes with him, then suddenly playing a ball past him, asking him to wheel around after it and shoot with either foot.

‘I can pass it to his right or left – he doesn’t know when or where I’m going to send it,’ Rush says. ‘It’s how he reacts to that. As soon as you turn in that situation, if you take one second longer than is needed, the goalkeeper knows what you’re going to do. Your first reaction before the goalkeeper reacts – that’s what it’s all about.’

Ian Rush has urged Wales to go and ‘take the chance’ when they face Denmark in the last 16

The Wales legend has worked with members of squad and backed them in their mammoth tie

Wilson was so left footed at first that Rush had him passing and crossing with his right, trying instinctively to change the preference, almost without him knowing. ‘Players want to use their preferred foot but football just doesn’t work like that,’ he says. ‘He mastered it.’ Wilson called this the ‘Rushie Challenge’.

The value to the then national manager Chris Coleman of having the former Liverpool and Wales legend on hand, as elite performance director of the Wales FA Trust, was clear when England began inquiring about the forward playing for them.

‘I knew they were sniffing around and I knew that was a danger because at Liverpool he was considered so special they called him “the Welsh Brazilian”‘, Rush relates. ‘So we got him into the Victory Shield squad for games against England. I called him, to ask him along. That was enough for him.’ 

Benfica have this week made an approach for Wilson, 24, who on loan from Liverpool at Cardiff last season. Brentford and West Bromwich Albion also interested.

Rush worked with Harry Wilson at Liverpool youth level to help strengthen his weaker foot

Of course, it’s on Gareth Bale and Aaron Ramsey that Wales’ hopes of a famous win rest on Saturday night. That’s a burden that Rush has also had to bear.

‘I knew I had to take my chances. That was the difference with Wales,’ he says, on a call from Rome, from where he will fly into Amsterdam this morning to be at the Johan Cruyff Stadium.

‘When I was playing for Liverpool I could miss two or three chances, because I knew there would probably be more get more coming my way. With Wales, I knew I wasn’t going to get that four or five. If I had just one, I knew I had to take it.’

That’s why Rush’s message to any Wales player who finds the ball at his feet in front of goal tonight is to seize the chance, without any fear of the consequences. 

Just as Rush did when he was playing, the burden will be on Aaron Ramsey and Gareth Bale

‘Don’t be afraid to fail’ has always been his mantra – whether advising Michael Owen, Robbie Fowler or Wilson, in the 20-minute Wales sessions they had at Cardiff’s Sophia Gardens or St George’s Park, preparing for games against the home nations in the Victory Shield.

‘Today’s world is worse than ever, because it’s not the 99 good things you do, it’s the one bad thing that people focus on,’ Rush says. ‘But you can miss four open goals and when you score the next one people will forget about those you miss. 

‘Never be scared to miss because you’re doing something right, getting in the right position. It a mental toughness and if you haven’t got it as a striker, you’ve got no chance.’

Wilson was slight, only really beginning fill out physically when he was 18, but he was always skilful. Rob Page’s strike man – Kieffer Moore – is diametrically opposite: a battering ram in some ways. Rush feels he doesn’t get the acclaim he deserves.

The former striker says goalkeeper Danny Ward has ben Wales’ player of the tournament

‘When you’re playing up front by yourself you get battered by all the defenders and it’s the people like Bale, Ramsey and Dan James who get the rebounds. But he’s also a proper defender.’ For Rush, goalkeeper Danny Ward has been Wales’ player of the tournament so far.

If there’s a concern for him, then it’s the lack of game time that a number of the outfield players have had for their clubs. ‘If you haven’t played football regularly, the first two or three games are fine but then tiredness sets in.’

Players like Wilson and Tyler Roberts, who Rush has also worked with, could be the ones with the chance to sign their name across the Amsterdam night.. They know what his message will be if a chances comes their way. ‘Take the chance,’ he says. ‘Don’t have fear.’